4Real Forums: Co-ops?

Oh, Dearest Mother, Sweetest Virgin of Altagracia, our Patroness. You are our Advocate and to you we recommend our needs. You are our Teacher and like disciples we come to learn from the example of your holy life. You are our Mother, and like children, we come to offer you all of the love of our hearts. Receive, dearest Mother, our offerings and listen attentively to our supplications. Amen.

Active Topics || Favorites || Member List || Search || About Us || Help || Register || Login

Living Learning ( Forum Locked)
4Real Forums : Living Learning

Topic: Co-ops?

Author

Message

<< Prev Topic | Next Topic >>

mamaslearning
Forum All-Star

Joined: Nov 12 2007
Location: N/A
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 927

Posted: Jan 31 2011 at 10:49am \| IP Logged

Do you attend a co-op (or gather with other families to learn)? What types of activities do you do? Several of us are thinking of getting together on a weekly basis, and we are trying to come up with classes or activites to do with 19 kids (core ages are 1st-3rd with lots of littles, and a few olders).

Any sites to point me to as we start this process?

If it were just for preschool/K ages, I would have plenty of ideas, but I'm at a loss for appropriate classes/activities for early elementary.

Here are some ideas floating in my head:
PE
Art
Music
Science Experiments

Thanks for your help!

__________________
Lara
DD 11, DS 8, DS 6, DS 4
St. Francis de Sales Homeschool

guitarnan
Forum Moderator

Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: Maryland
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 10883

Posted: Jan 31 2011 at 10:57am \| IP Logged

Sounds like you are on the right track!

Our co-op does all of those with early elementary, as moms prefer each semester.

Other fun ideas:

Presentations (this is a precursor to Speech - the children read/recite prose and poetry, and their "audience" tells them afterward whether they spoke loudly enough to be heard, what they did well, etc.)

Gregorian chant (we did this last semester and the children LOVED it!)

State history

Janice Van Cleave has written some great science experiment books for this age group.

__________________
Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.

MaryM
Board Moderator

Joined: Feb 11 2005
Location: Colorado
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 13104

Posted: Jan 31 2011 at 11:41am \| IP Logged

We did a co-op for several years (between 10-18 families at different times) and are looking into starting one again in the fall. It is very rewarding for the kids but is lots of work. Ultimately why we stopped was a few moms seemed to always end up with most of the work/teaching and we got tired of that when others wouldn't pitch in more. You defineitly need clear expectations up front on what is expected.

For me the elementary age classes/activies are tons of fun to plan and I prefer that to the preschool group. So my suggestion there is to get those moms who have an interest/ideas for the elementary ages focused on that area. FIgure out where each of your strengths and interests are.

There is a recent issue of mater et magistra that focused on co-ops. Also Maureen Wittmann's book, The Catholic Homeschool Companion has a chapter on "Establishing a Cooperative: Guidelines and a Checklist" which I find helpful.

For elementary age we focused on:
Art & Music
History
Science (not just experiments)

There really are tons of fun "units" you can do in those areas. I'll list some of our past examples when I can find the records.

And I thought we had a thread or two on starting a co-op. I'm not finding what I was looking for but did find this one which I think is helpful: Going back and forth on coop decision

__________________
Mary M. in Denver

Our Domestic Church

guitarnan
Forum Moderator

Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: Maryland
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 10883

Posted: Jan 31 2011 at 12:05pm \| IP Logged

Mary is correct. You must make involvement mandatory for every mom (illness and new babies aside, of course!). Here are some ways moms can contribute:

Teach
Assist a teacher
Coordinate snacks
Work in the nursery (very important!)
Coordinate, store and bring supplies
Act as co-op treasurer (we have to pay rent for the rooms we use, and supply costs are divided up by family)
Lead/organize co-op (this involves planning meetings, scheduling, roster)

We require all moms who are not ill to be on-site at every co-op meeting. No drop-offs.

__________________
Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.

JodieLyn
Forum Moderator

Joined: Sept 06 2006
Location: Oregon
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 12234

Posted: Jan 31 2011 at 12:32pm \| IP Logged

we did energy/solar energy with kids that ranged from pre school to 8th grade (hmm we might have had one high schooler there some too) and I think they all enjoyed it. It was a kit I was given.. and very hands on.. I think it was PG&E (in California) and it was a kit for schools.

And the kids remembered it well.. it just happened that after we'd done this.. a school teacher at our Church was getting some stuff from a family that did solar power for their house.. for his classes and of course the kids still around were hanging around and watching the neat things.. they were quite impressed with how much the kids knew

__________________
Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4

All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott

mamaslearning
Forum All-Star

Joined: Nov 12 2007
Location: N/A
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 927

Posted: Jan 31 2011 at 2:47pm \| IP Logged

These are some great ideas. Thanks! I'm thinking that ours will be a bit relaxed (in that we are not covering core work), but I do like the idea of having clear expectations before beginning.

Mary, I had not thought of doing unit studies. That opens up a whole new area for me to pursue.

I tried searching on here for co-op ideas, but couldn't find much. I'll try with different word combos.

__________________
Lara
DD 11, DS 8, DS 6, DS 4
St. Francis de Sales Homeschool

mamasue
Forum Pro

Joined: Nov 09 2009
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 139

Posted: Jan 31 2011 at 4:48pm \| IP Logged

Also, depending on where it's held you'll need people to clean up. Our site expects us to use our own paper products (including TP and paper towels) and we try to leave it in better condition than when we found it!

For the middle and highschoolers we always try to include one relaxing or fun class which is not academic. Board games, chess, archery, PE. Those guys seem to already have a full plate so the rest is welcome!

For the younger crowd (ours is split into nursery, prek, k-2, 3-5) we usually do one science class, one history class and the third varies- art, presentations, active time.

Unit studies is a great idea!

Clear expectations is a must! We've had so many moms show up to the first coop expecting to just drop their kids off. They completely missed the planning stages, lol

sewcrazy
Forum All-Star

Joined: Aug 17 2006
Location: Illinois
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 735

Posted: Jan 31 2011 at 5:54pm \| IP Logged

I organized a coop at my church. We have 3 groups: preK thru 1, 2th thru 4th, and 5th thru 8th.

The youngest group does weekly thematic units.

This year the other 2 groups are doing science, Latin and geography. We meet from 9:30 to 11:45 on Wednesday mornings. One groups does science while the other group does geography. In between both groups do Latin. Science and geography are 45 minutes long, Latin is 20 minutes and there is a short play period. We use Hands of A Child lapbooks (they allow co-op printing of their ebooks with no additional fee and I work for them at conventions and am paid in lapbooks)

All moms signed up for jobs at the beginning of the year. Everyone has to work, but not everyone has jobs during the coop period, some do prep work at home, or do the shopping.

__________________
LeeAnn
Wife of David, mom to Ben, Dennis, Alex, Laura, Philip and our little souls in heaven we have yet to meet

cathhomeschool
Board Moderator

Texas Bluebonnets

Joined: Jan 26 2005
Location: Texas
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 7303

Posted: Jan 31 2011 at 10:43pm \| IP Logged

We've participated in a variety of co-ops. I don't have much to add to what has already been said except that we usually added religion. Studying saints and celebrating a feast day every couple of weeks is fun with the age groups you mention. If you end up doing unit studies, you might even be able to coordinate that with saints (based on geographic area or what they're the patron saint of). When we've done Liturgical Year co-ops we usually read a book, do a craft or art project and coloring page, have a related snack and (for older kids) do copywork and discussion.

__________________
Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)

Search for other posts by cathhomeschool

guitarnan
Forum Moderator

Joined: Feb 07 2005
Location: Maryland
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 10883

Posted: Jan 31 2011 at 10:47pm \| IP Logged

If your co-op moms aren't ready to teach weekly religion classes, perhaps you could arrange a Holy Hour or some other special event at your parish to close out each semester.

I have not taught religion classes for grades 1-3 at our co-op, but I have taught classes on North American saints (story and craft for each saint), Church history and more. It's very easy to integrate, say, religion and art (hands on or appreciation) or religion and music....

__________________
Nancy in MD. Mom of ds (24) & dd (18); 31-year Navy wife, move coordinator and keeper of home fires. Writer and dance mom.

allegiance_mom
Forum Pro

Joined: June 26 2007
Location: New York
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 163

Posted: Feb 05 2011 at 8:00pm \| IP Logged

Right now I am teaching Latin to grades 1 - 3 using Song School Latin.

We do gym and science. The science theme changes each quarter. Right now it's weather.

__________________
Allegiance Mom in NY

Wife 17 years
Mom to two boys, 14 and 8, and one pre-born babe in Heaven (Jan 2010)

Search for other posts by allegiance_mom

mamaslearning
Forum All-Star

Joined: Nov 12 2007
Location: N/A
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 927

Posted: Feb 07 2011 at 5:51pm \| IP Logged

Thanks for the wonderful ideas. We are keeping it relaxed and will be meeting at our houses (or parks). Sometimes we will do field trips, and one day will be PE oriented. I'm now researching some history or science mini-units to do when it's my turn to host.

I'm excited!

__________________
Lara
DD 11, DS 8, DS 6, DS 4
St. Francis de Sales Homeschool

MaryM
Board Moderator

Joined: Feb 11 2005
Location: Colorado
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 13104

Posted: Feb 07 2011 at 6:10pm \| IP Logged

mamaslearning wrote:

Oh yeah, I was going to get back to this topic with some of our co-op units.

A couple history ones that we did that were really fun and well suited to elementary:
Pioneers
Lewis & Clark
Immigration (studied different cultures along with that)
Depression Era

Others that would be good this year:
Civil War (April of this year marks the 150th anniversary of the start)
Pony Express (also the 150th anniversary this year and last)

__________________
Mary M. in Denver

Our Domestic Church

martinas6
Forum Rookie

Joined: Feb 15 2005
Location: Illinois
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 96

Posted: Feb 09 2011 at 1:02pm \| IP Logged

When we did co-op a few years sgo, the kids took writing classes based on IEW's program. It was really helpful to have the kids actually hear other kid's ideas for writing as writing is ofetn a subject they were stuck on. It's nice to hear how others think,it gave them great ideas.

__________________
Martina DeRose in IL
married in 93
mom to 10
http://www.mamax9.blogspot.com

martinas6
Forum Rookie

Joined: Feb 15 2005
Location: Illinois
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 96

Posted: Feb 09 2011 at 1:03pm \| IP Logged

excuse my typos, in a hurry...:(

__________________
Martina DeRose in IL
married in 93
mom to 10
http://www.mamax9.blogspot.com

Susana
Forum Pro

Joined: April 30 2008
Location: Illinois
Online Status: Offline
Posts: 221

Posted: Feb 09 2011 at 11:57pm \| IP Logged

I wrote about how my friends and I helped each other do a Montessori co-op at my blog. You can check out the Post here if you're interested: Montessori Co-op

__________________
Mami to ds12,ds11,ds10,ds8,dd7, dd4, and ds 2.

Sorry, you cannot post a reply to this topic.
This forum has been locked by a forum administrator.

[Add this topic to My Favorites]

Printable version

Forum Jump

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot create polls in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum

Hosting and Support provided by theNetSmith.com